5 Times Hillary Clinton Schooled Donald Trump at the First Presidential Debate

The first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was billed as one of the most highly anticipated showdowns in modern political history—to be watched with equal parts anxiety and schaudenfraude, by an estimated 100 million people around the world. Big (or, as Trump would say, huge) questions loomed: How could Hillary possibly prepare to debate a loose cannon? Could she delegitimize him as hot-headed and “unpresidential”—or would he shut her down with his special brand of brash, reality-star fire?

But when the candidates finally came face-to-face for the first time in this brutally long, often ugly and sensational campaign season, Clinton came to play, bringing senatorial and Secretary of State gravitas to the stage at Hofstra University and maintaining impressive chill as Trump alternately raised his voice and interrupted (man-terrupted?) Clinton an estimated 26 times, according to CNN. Here, five key moments when she schooled him.

1. Clinton reminded Trump—and the world—that her résumé is an asset.Trump cites Clinton’s experience as a negative, painting her as a dreaded Washington “insider.” But Clinton invoked her experience in subtle, yet powerful moments. In one glaring exchange about the Iraq War, Trump uttered a statement surely never heard before on the presidential debate stage: “During my interview with Howard Stern . . .” In her response, Clinton presented a sharp contrast: “When I was Secretary of State . . .”

When Trump attacked her for breaking from the campaign trail to prep for the debate, raising the old Tracy Flick narrative of Clinton, she fired back with perhaps the money quote of the debate: “Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate," she said. “Yes, I did. And you know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be President. And that is a good thing.”

2. When former Secretary Clinton called out Trump’s self-proclaimed “winning temperament.”“I think my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament. I have a winning temperament,” asserted Trump, ironically, after raising his voice repeatedly and man-terrupting Clinton (is there masculine equivalent of “shrill” yet?), prompting moderator Lester Holt to remind him that he was treading on Clinton’s time. As CNN’s split-screen showed, Clinton didn’t fight fire with fire, but with ice—laughing in response to many of Trump’s aggressive moments. On the issue of temperament, she coolly referred to Trump’s recent statement that he’d have Iranian sailors who harassed an American naval vessel “shot out of the water.” Said Clinton: “That is not the right temperament to be commander in chief.”

3. When she hammered Trump for failing to release his tax returns.“For 40 years, everyone has released their tax returns. You gotta ask yourself, why won’t he release his tax returns?” Clinton asked pointedly. “Maybe he’s not as rich as he says he is, maybe he’s not as charitable as he claims to be . . . or maybe he doesn’t want the American people . . . to know that he’s paid nothing in federal taxes,” she continued—“zero for troops, zero for vets, zero for schools or health. This point prompted not only a furrowed brow from Trump, but a gaffe, when he retorted that dodging federal income taxes “makes me smart.”

4. When Clinton aptly defended swirling questions about her health and “stamina.”Asked by Holt to elaborate on his claim that Clinton—the first woman to win the American presidential nomination of a major party—doesn’t have a presidential “look,” Trump switched gears and instead argued that Clinton lacks “stamina.” Her measured response? “As soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a ceasefire, a release of dissidents, and opening of new opportunities around the world or even spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina.” Mic drop.

5. When Clinton raised the traditionally women-and-family-focused issues that neither Holt nor Trump did.Clinton was the only one to call for equal pay for equal work, and was first, during the early economic policy portion, to raise the issues of paid family leave, sick leave, and affordable child care. (Trump said he expected to touch on those issues later in the debate, though Holt never asked.) Soon after, Clinton failed to let Trump off the hook on the question of her “look,” using the opportunity to hit Trump on his long history of misogynistic comments. “This is a man who has called women pigs, slobs, and dogs . . . who has said pregnancy is an inconvenience to employers,” Clinton said, before segueing to a lesser-known anecdote about Trump’s criticism of a Miss Universe contestant. “He called this woman Miss Piggy. Then he called her Miss Housekeeping because she was Latina,” Clinton said. “Her name is Alicia Machado, she has become a U.S. citizen, and you can bet she's going to vote this November.”